John Swift

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

John Sheddon Swift (born 3 February 1852, died 28 February 1926 at Kew, Victoria) was a Victorian First-class cricketer and Test match umpire.

He played three matches for Victoria as a right-hand batsman, scoring 65 runs at an average of 13.00 with a highest score of 28. He also kept wickets, taking two catches.

Swift umpired 8 Test matches, and was the first Australian to regularly officiate. He made his debut in the match between Australia and England in Melbourne on 31 December 1881 to 4 January 1882, officiating with James Lillywhite. In 1882-83 he and Ted Elliott stood in all four Test matches, the first time two umpires had officiated throughout an entire series. Moyes commented that “[a]pparently we had reached the time when some kind of qualification was required and some consistency in appointment was observed.” This was the series that saw presentation of “The Ashes” urn to the English captain, Ivo Bligh. Swift's last match was between Australia and England in Sydney on 25 February to 1 March 1887.

[edit] See also

• Australian Test Cricket Umpires
• List of Test umpires

[edit] External links

• Player Profile: John Swift from Cricinfo

[edit] References

• Pollard, Jack, ‘’Australian Cricket: 1803-1893, The Formative Years’’. Sydney, The Book Company, 1995. (ISBN 0-207-15490-2)
• Moyes, A. G., ‘’Australian Cricket: A History’’, Sydney, Angus & Robertson, 1959.